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EM105

Lukas Foss Echoi, Fragments of Archilochos ... During the 1960s and 1970s, the Center for the Creative and Performing Arts (at The University at Buffalo in upstate New York) was a major creative center for new musical ideas. Composers and performers from around the world worked there through those years. And in the middle of that activity was Lukas Foss, one of the founders of the Center and its primary creative inspiration. The works on this CD were originally recorded in 1968 and released shortly afterwards as a Wergo LP. This CD was conceived to honor Lukas Foss on the occasion of his 75th birthday, August 15, 1997. As Jan Williams writes, "There is no living musician that has had more impact on my life as a performer of contemporary music than Lukas Foss ... Our long friendship and continuing musical collaborations remain a great source of joy for me. Lukas is a musician of gigantic stature in the annals of American contemporary music ... His incredible creativity, energy and humanity never cease to be a great source of inspiration to me." The performers for 'Echoi' and 'Non-Improvisation' are Lukas Foss (piano), Jan Williams (percussion), Douglas Davis (cello), and Edward Yadzinski (clarinet). The performers for 'Fragments of Archilochos' are Crane Collegiate Singers, State University College at Potsdam (directed by Brock McElheran), with Robert Betts (voice), Miriam Abramowitsch and Melvin Strauss (speakers), Oswald Rantucci (mandolin), Jonathan Marcus (guitar), and Jan Williams, Edward Burnham, and Lynn Harbold (percussion). Tracks Echoi (1963) Recipient of the prestigious New York Music Critics Award in 1964 and a magnificent musical statement of the 1960s, is Foss' major work to grow out of his earlier experiments with the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble in Los Angeles. Fragments of Achilochos (1965) Commissioned by The State University College at Potsdam, New York, and based on the work of Archilochos, a Greek poet (between 680 and 640 BC) whose work is known only via a collection of fragments. Non-Improvisation (1967) 'Composed' for the Warsaw Autumn Festival. Edward Yadzinky tells the story: "In the early fall of 1967, Doug Davis, Jan Williams and I took a taxi to the Copenhagen airport to meet Lukas Foss, who was bringing a new, ink-wet manuscript from New York. We had an appointment to rehearse and record the new chamber piece (along with Echoi) over the next 48 hours or so for a special broadcast by the Danish Radio -- more or less as a prelude to our scheduled performances a few days later at the 1967 Autumn Festival in Warsaw ... But Lukas was up to some of his creative mischief and said: 'Well, yes, I have a score in a manner of speaking. But I thought, rather than notating something, how about if we rehearse a special improvisation -- which means we will have to call it 'Non-Improvisation' -- because anything rehearsed is never genuinely improvised, yet our rehearsal materials will flow from our improvisations. It could be fun! Simple as that." Buy it!

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